Thursday, March 17, 2011

Emma Vaile is the most powerful ghostkeeper in centuries. Which is great when she's battling the wraith-master Neos, but terrible when she's flirting with fellow ghostkeeper (and soul mate) Bennett. When ghostkeepers fall in love, the weaker one loses all power, and that's not something Bennett can handle. Heartbroken and alone, Emma tries to lose herself in school with fellow ghostkeeper, Natalie. When a new team of ghostkeepers arrive—one a snarky teen boy, the other a British scholar—Emma finds solace in training for the battle against Neos. But as the team grows stronger, they are threatened by an unknown force. One they thought was good.As chilling and page-turning as Deception, this sequel will grab readers and hold them to the last page. No one is safe from suspicion as Emma closes in on the traitor. (From Goodreads)

I really enjoyed Deception, the first book in the Haunting Emma series. Since I loved it so much, I had pretty high expectations for the follow-up, and Nichols was able to live up to them. There's more adventure, romance, and ghosts. Plus, a fairly shocking end to the traitor mystery!

Things haven't been easy for Emma since we left her in Deception. Her old friends blame her for the death of Coby, her relationship with Bennett is unable to move forward, and she still has to worry about Neos. As the book moves forward, we get to see her learn more about her powers, and gain more experience using them. Old characters return (the Rake is back!), and we get to meet some new additions to Emma's crew. There's Simon (he reminded me a bit of Giles), and Lukas, and they both kept the book feeling fresh.

The seriousness of Emma's situation seemed to really sink in over the course of this book. Coby's death is being dealt with, and things got violent. I don't want to give away too much of the story, but there were a couple scenes that left me saying "Woah, did that just happen?! What will they do now?" Even in the relationship between Emma and Bennett things seemed grim. After all, he can't exact revenge if he loses his power because of Emma. Still, the romance was there, and the scenes were great! I really love them together, even if Bennett tries to protect Emma by acting cold. The reader learns a bit more about Neos, and experiences how truly evil he is. He pulled out all the stops trying to get Emma out of his way.

I'm always pleased when the second book in a series is just as good as the first book. I'm actually thinking that Betrayal was even better than Deception. It kept me on the edge of my seat, and now I'm dying to read book 3.

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